A recent global study conducted by MinimumDespoitCasinos.org delved further into the perception of different accents across the world to ultimately uncover which country has the highest odds of having the most- and least-friendly accents. The study surveyed 5 000 participants.
South Africa ranks 12th amongst the world's friendliest accents, with one in every 100 participants identifying the accent to be the friendliest (1.6%).
Americans have the highest odds at being considered friendly, with one in five respondents deeming the American accent to be the friendliest (19.5%)
Despite the Canadian accent being the most closely related to General American English, with similar rules for pronunciation and accent, the Canadian accent received 10.8 fewer percentage points than American – with just one in 12 selecting it as the friendliest accent (8.7%).
The British accent is the second most favoured, with one in seven identifying this accent as sounding the friendliest (13.6%). This corresponds with a recent study which uncovered that the British accent is the most likeable accent globally, with 45% of respondents stating they enjoy hearing their native language spoken with a British accent.
The Australian accent places third, with almost one in ten respondents considering this accent to be friendly (8.8%). While the Kiwi accent is often regarded as close resemblance to the Australian accent, primarily distinguished by vowel pronunciation, New Zealanders ranked 15th overall. Just one in 100 respondents identified the Kiwi accent as the friendliest. This is despite previously being deemed the ‘sexiest’ accent in 2019.
“Attitudes toward language varieties usually reflect the ideas we have about people who speak those varieties. If people around the world think American English sounds friendly, it’s good news for Americans – because it means people think of Americans as friendly people. More nuanced accent labels would likely reveal even greater variability,” said Dr Christopher Strelluf, Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Warwick.
The top-ten friendliest accents in the world according to the study are as follows:
